Does everyone remember the musical “My Fair Lady?” Henry Higgins had trained Eliza Doolittle to speak like a lady, but to win a bet he needed to pass her off as a duchess at a high-class affair.
“I‘ve taught her to speak properly; and she has strict orders as to her behavior,” he tells his mother. “She’s to keep to two subjects: the weather and everybody’s health – Fine day and How do you do,” and not to let herself go on things in general. That will be safe.”
As the story unfolds, Henry Higgins is, of course, something of a fool, and his words come back to haunt him. For the record, health can be a pretty gruesome topic.
Nowadays, even talking about the weather can become a political debate.
Not long ago, a reader expressed displeasure with the Great Bend Tribune’s opinion page, wondering if we had given up our conservative roots in favor of trying to persuade readers to become more liberal. And then, someone else wondered why we put so much about Sen. Roger Marshall in the paper, especially since this is an election year and it could amount to “free advertising.”
When it comes to the Tribune, the opinions of our employees belong on this page, the Opinion Page, and nowhere else. We sign our names to them.
Sometimes people say they like an opinion piece I’ve written. Sometimes they hate it. That’s OK. But lately I have steered away from politics and tell people I’m only going to write about “puppies and unicorns.” I’ve had quite a bit to say about the weather, too.
Then there are the columnists whose works appear on the opinion page. There was a time when we were told to aim for a perfect balance – half left-leaning and half right-leaning. A noble goal, if only pundits would write to meet our quotas. I was thrilled last week when someone said they agreed with about half of the columns we run and hate the other half. That’s the best we can hope for.
Today's choices include the conservative Dane Hicks from the Kansas Informer and a Kansas Farm Bureau “Insight” column. You can see the Hicks column was about “The Big Game” but we received it too late to use until today. The KFB “Insight” normally would have run in Saturday’s “Community” section with other columns on health, gardening and Social Security. It was held for space and since the topic involved farmers and the Kansas Legislature, it seemed like fair game for this page. All columns are personal and express the opinion of the writer.
We also have a letter from a reader today. Those are always appreciated and we’d love to have more letters.
As for my opinion, I can tell you that “Team Fluff” won the Lombarky Trophy at Puppy Bowl 2026, and Penny, a 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher, won Best in Show at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.” Good for them.
I guess I don’t have anything to say about unicorns at the moment.
Oh, in the news pages, there’s some Roger Marshall news. Last Thursday, our Senator was a host at the National Prayer Breakfast. I have no opinion on that; it’s just what happened. That could have gone on Saturday’s “Church Page,” but again, we ran out of space. There were just too many church pancake and sausage breakfasts and dinners to announce, or we would have mentioned it then.
Susan Thacker is the editor of the Great Bend Tribune. Contact her at sthacker@gbtribune.com.
